The communications industry is rapidly changing to adjust to emerging technologies and ever increasing customer demand. This customer demand for new applications and increased performance of existing applications is driving communications network and system providers to employ networks and systems having greater speed and capacity (e.g., greater bandwidth). In trying to achieve these goals, a common approach taken by many communications providers is to use packet switching technology.
Consumers and designers of these systems typically desire high reliability and increased performance at a reasonable price, as well as seamless integration with existing telephonic products. Increasingly, communications service providers are building their communications infrastructure based on packet technology, and in particular, ATM technology. However, there remains an embedded customer base which have packet network non-compliant telephonic equipment, such as phones, facsimile machines, modems, etc. Customers are not willing to throw discard this equipment and replace it with new ATM compatible equipment. Thus, a voice gateway (“VGW”) is typically used at the customer premises (or possibly in a service provider location) which connects to the ATM network while typically providing at least one traditional analog telephone interface and possibly other packet network non-compliant interfaces (e.g., digital or analog telephone interfaces, etc.). The VGW performs the necessary protocol conversions and signaling to allow the packet network non-compliant telephonic equipment to be used in conjunction with a packet network.
Packet technology allows multiple types of traffic (e.g., voice, data, video) to be efficiently carried over a common network. Moreover, packet technology allows tremendous savings in bandwidth utilization especially for voice and other types of calls which can, for example, take advantage of compression and silence suppression techniques to decrease the amount of bandwidth required for a call. This bandwidth savings is amenable to both service providers and customers, as service providers are not required to over-engineer their systems as much as previously required, and consumers benefit, inter alia, with from this savings passed along as a decreased cost of service.
Although there are many pricing models used by service providers for which to charge customers, typically a customer can save money by placing a call with a lower maximum bandwidth requirement. For example, a voice call using compression and silence suppression can be placed that requires approximately an average of 60 cells per second with a peak of 100 cells per second, which is a substantial bandwidth and cost savings over clear channel voice call. Typically, a packet switching network will enforce (via a policing function) the established bandwidth parameters of the call. Thus, a call established at lower bandwidth will not support a call of substantially greater bandwidth, such as that of modem or facsimile traffic. Calls with traffic of this nature must be established at a higher bandwidth, which typically cost more in terms of economic and communication resources. However, the bandwidth of an established call may be changed by some networks, such as ATM networks supporting Q.2963.x.x signaling as defined by the International Telecommunication Union. These specifications include: “Peak Cell Rate Modification by the Connection Owner,” International Telecommunication Union Recommendation Q.2963.x.1 (July 1996); “Digital Subscriber Signaling System No. 2—Connection Modification: Modification Procedures for Sustainable Cell Rate Parameters,” International Telecommunication Union Recommendation Q.2963.x.2 (September 1997); and “Digital Subscriber Signaling System No. 2—Connection Modification: ATM Traffic Descriptor Modification With Negotiation by the Connection Owner,” International Telecommunication Union Recommendation Q.2963.x.3 (May 1998).
Many consumers use a single phone line for voice, modem and facsimile traffic, and it is often inconvenient, costly and maybe unfeasible (e.g., only a single pair of phone wires) to connect telephones, modems, and facsimile devices to separate ports of a voice gateway device. Typically, a port is configured to establish a call over the packet network at a predetermined bandwidth. Thus, a port which supports voice, modem and facsimile traffic is typically configured to request a higher bandwidth connection than a call may require. Needed are new methods and systems which can automatically match the bandwidth requirements to the type of call being placed.